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Saturday, 16 July 2011

Review: Undead by Kirsty McKay

When their ski-coach pulls up at a cafe, and everyone else gets off, new girl Bobby and rebel Smitty stay behind. They hardly know each other but that changes when through the fallingsnow, they see the others coming back.

Something has happened to them.

Something bad.

Soon only a pair of double doors stand between those on the bus and their ex-friends the Undead outside. Time to get a life.

Reading zombie books at night time is a bad idea. Even if said zombie book is aimed at an audience of 12+ and not actually supposed to be terrifying. What can I say? I get scared at basically anything.

I've seen Undead making the rounds on the British blogosphere and decided it was about time that I got around to reading that ARC I've had on my TBR pile for a while. While I was interested in reading it, it's not been something that I've been absolutely bouncing with excitement to read, but I had to read it at some point and I wanted something that I could put down to go to sleep and pick up in the morning, in other words, a book that I wasn't going to get glued to.

Bad choice then. The beginning was a little shaky, but that is to be expected, after a few chapter I literally could not put it down, whether that be due to being addicted to the characters or the fear that I leave off in the middle of the story I'd have nightmares, I don't know.

Don't take my word that this book is scary, I know it scared me a little but I freak out at just about anything, so you guys would probably find this book mildly thrilling at the most, but do take my word when I say that Undead is also so funny. The characters are stuck together in a mismatch, leading to some hilarious interactions; American new girl Bobby, bad boy and flirt Smitty, popular and prissy Alice and albino braniac Pete. The way that these characters come to respect each other is fantastic, to say that they started out by hating each other. I couldn't help feeling that some of the humour didn't fit in with the story, or that the timing was out, as if the humour was at odds with the story, which annoyed me to the max at some points.

The story is great too. It's fantastic to finally read a zombie story that's set in the modern day, sure, there are zombie books out there but most of them are dystopian, so Undead was a nice change. The story developed at a nice enough pace as well and was detailed enough, leaving very few, if any plot holes.

Overall, Undead was a great book which I would definitely recommend to older readers, and the younger ones if they're feeling brace! I will place my bets that when Undead hits the shelves in September, it will get snatched up and loved! I'm ending this review a little short as the pipes at my house make a funny noise and I'm pretty terrified.